when i read through the article in Canadian Business Magazine, November 6, 2006, I am amazed at how much money was spent on what appears to be an effort to "prevent" any independent investigation into the allegations made by the young whistleblower who killed himself.

His message, his allegations, and his evidence of alleged (yet univestigated) wrongs appear from the article to be completely buried by those who stood to profit from hiding them, or by a legal system which stood to profit ($1 mil spent) from helping to avoid independant inquiry.

The need for independant and very public review of this is obvious to myself.

Please exercise your public right and contact your member of parliament, send them a copy of this Canadian Business article if you need to, and DEMAND public judicial inquiry or Royal Commission into this.

The Small Investor Protection Association (SIPA) acts as a Voice for Small Investors. Founded in 1998, SIPA has over 500 members in nine provinces across Canada. We are committed to working with government, regulators and industry towards a better investing environment and meaningful investor protection.

In February 2004, SIPA issued a report "The Small Investors' Perspective of Investor Protection in Canada", and delivered it to leaders across Canada.

In September 2004, CARP (Canada's Association for the 50 Plus) & SIPA issued a report "Giving Small Investors a Fair Chance". This report also made recommendations.

In February 2005, SIPA submitted a report "It's a Matter of Trust" to the Standing Senate Committee on Banking Trade & Commerce with recommendations.

In April 2005, SIPA & CARP appeared before the Senate Committee in Ottawa to represent small investors.

SIPA is associating with CARP, USCO (the United Senior Citizens of Ontario) and others, in new initiatives regarding fair treatment for seniors, widows and other small investors. Our working group represents over 700,000 individuals.

We see an investment industry circumventing or ignoring regulations, developing products to avoid regulation and selling unregulated products to trusting seniors. Income Trusts, Principal Protected Notes and other structured products are being sold to small investors not aware of the associated risks. The industry is knowingly victimizing small investors who have no recourse except civil litigation.

We are concerned that little progress is being made towards establishing a national investment regulator and an authority that has a mandate for investor protection.

Seniors, widows and other small investors continue to be robbed of their savings by an investment industry, permeated by corruption, that practices widespread wrongdoing; an industry that frustrates regulators and constantly seeks to evade regulations and sell unregulated products to unknowing small investors who trust that the industry is well regulated.

Wrongdoing is now beginning to be exposed in Canada and the industry is paying billions of dollars to cover up the extent of the wrongdoing. Legal actions are settled out of court with gag orders to prevent the public from learning the truth. Now several of our provinces have succumbed and reduced limitation periods to two years from six years to further erode individuals' rights.

Legislators have failed to recognize that victims of life altering events generally take more than two years to recover sufficiently to take any action. They have also failed to recognize that the industry complaints handling processes routinely delay complainants by more than two years. This must be fixed.

Now the trial of an investor advocate as outlined below should concern anyone who is concerned with investment industry regulation and investor protection.

It started with a "TruthTeller" Kent Shirley who reported to the regulators in February 2004. The investigation was long and drawn out and little progress made. Shirley is reported to have committed suicide last December but not before he passed the torch to Joe Killoran, an investor advocate who has devoted his life to seeking the truth. Many do not agree with his methods but if we had an effective regulatory system that truly protected investors there would be no need or reason for individuals like Joe Killoran or volunteer organizations such as the Small Investor Protection Association.

Joe promptly passed the information to other regulators, to the media, and to Elliot Spitzer hoping against hope that Spitzer could do something Canadian regulators can't or won’t.

Spitzer's actions resulted in companies penalized in the U.S. while they seem to escape lightly in Canada. It resulted in perpetrators sentenced to prison in the U.S. for substantial terms, whereas in Canada white collar crime is lightly punished.

IT IS TIME that our regulators and our government begin to recognize the extent of wrongdoing in our Canadian investment industry and the failure of our regulatory and legal systems to protect victims of wrongdoing.

A PUBLIC INQUIRY is sorely needed. Surely the rash of scandals and bankruptcies with mutual funds, income trusts, hedge funds, structured products, and regulatory issues are sufficient cause to warrant such an inquiry.

IT IS TIME that our governments and regulators send observers to this trial and pay attention to how the Canadian public is being robbed by an industry that uses our legal process to further victimize the investing public.

There are many issues that could be investigated in the financial industry. Selling of income trusts that have no suitability to anyone other than speculators, by investment firms, just to create underwriting fees. Selling them knowing that the "yield" is misleading and untrue.

Eatons. Teranet. Legal exemptions granted to financial firms to assist them in "putting lipstick on investment pigs", so they can more easily be sold to a trusting and vulnerable public.

The failures in the duty to care for the public interest, in the name of greed and profit are endless, and indicate to me a total failure of Canada's current financial regulatory system.

This topic will look at some of the issues that members have, and some of the thinking of which example carries with it the strongest illustration of all that has gone wrong with our regulators.